An Open Letter To GreaterAnglia
As I have been travelling up and down to Ipswich from London since probably about 1963, when I used to put my bicycle in the guard’s van and have it hauled by a Britannia between my parent’s main and retirement homes, it was inevitable, that one day I’d end up in the sort of incident that I did last night.
I should say, that after the death of my wife and son to cancer, and a serious stroke, I retired to London from Newmarket, and as I’m still a season ticket holder at Portman Road, I come up for every Ipswich Town home match.
Yesterday incidentally, was the first day, when my chosen train up (down in your terminology) to Ipswich, the 13:30 from Liverpool Street hasn’t been within a minute of its scheduled arrival time of 14:43 and I missed the first few minutes of the match. Luckily, Ipswich left the excitement for later. As I’ve taken this train, perhaps fifty times in the last three years, that is probably not a bad record.
I usually go home on the 17:09, so that I can experience the comfort of First in a Mark 3 coach. Yesterday though, we were advised to take the Football Special and in common with everybody else, I ended up on Colchester station. At least the buffet was open, and I was able to get a decent cup of hot chocolate, as from my knowledge of railway electrification, I knew from the fact that all the lines for London, were blocked by fallen trees, we could be in for a long wait.
But Ipswich fans tend to be fairly stoic and resourceful, especially after the troubles of the last few years. I thought and hoped, that my mate, Ian, who lives in Kent and had also been at the match, might be in the area, and as luck would have it for me, but not I suspect for him, he was visiting his father in Colchester Hospital.
So unlike others, just after 18:30, I was sitting comfortably on my way south. Ian lives near Ebbsfleet, so he was able to drop me at the station there, to get the High Speed service to Statford, which is an Overground ride away from where I live in Hackney.
I was starting to get hungry, but as I’m a coeliac, getting food at Stratford and the nearby Eastfield shopping centre is difficult, as not even Marks and Spencer, has anything like a gluten-free sandwich and there is no restaurant that I trust to serve a meal without gluten.
So instead of getting home at about seven, I was home just before nine, which given the circumstances and probably the experiences of other passengers, wasn’t too bad.
It is interesting to compare the trip[, with one I took on Deutsche Bahn in similarly awful weather, where I was abandoned at Osnabruck on a trip from Hamburg to Amsterdam, and left to my own devices. With incidentally no offer of compensation.
Obviously, you will always have problems with trees by the line, if we continue to get this awful weather. And obviously now, unlike in the 1950s and 1960s, there are no Britannias to periodically clear the trees, by setting fire to them.
In some ways, you suffered from one of the problems of an all-electric railway, which is obviously vulnerable to an event as last night. It would of course have helped if the line from Ipswich to Cambridge had been electrified, as it would have enabled the ferrying of Ipswich passengers for London to Cambridge, for onward travel. But that infill won’t happen for some years, if it ever does.
I think that the only solution, that might help, would be if you had a couple of Class 88 engines to run direct services to Yarmouth, as their go-anywhere capability would have allowed a shuttle via Cambridge. But then the first of these is a few years away from being built.
I think, under the circumstances, you did as well as could be expected. But probably the fact, that Ipswich had won, meant most fans were in a good mood. But you can’t please everybody!
Certainly though, your performance in times of smaller troubles over the last few years, has in my experience, been a lot better than some other companies I could name.
Are Things Getting Better?
There has been a lot of discussion about whether things are getting better, with the government that things are on the up and Milliband saying they’re not. This article gives both views, with David Cameron being quoted in this way.
Most British workers have seen their take-home pay rise in real terms in the past year, the government claims.
It has produced figures showing all except the richest 10% saw their take-home wages rise by at least 2.5% once tax cuts were taken into account.
The article says this about Ed Milliband.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said the figures were “dodgy” and ministers were out of touch with people’s lives.
I’m not going to take sides, but as I travel around the country, I see many things.
If I look at my situation, I think it has got marginally better compared to what it was twelve months ago.
I’m getting a slightly higher rate on my savings in Zopa, my energy is slightly cheaper since I moved my energy supplier to Ovo and running my household seems to be cheaper, as I’ve organised myself better. The latter is not down to the economy, but partly due to individuals and companies, launching new products and services.
One thing that hasn’t hit me, is the cost of motoring! Because I don’t!
I’ve just had February’s edition of Modern Railways and as in the last few months, there are quite a few articles about new stations and lines. There’s also been a few examples of new and refurbished trains being built or modified in the UK. But go to places like Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester and the transport infrastructure is much better than it was three or four years ago. Other places like Blackburn have got new stations. And there are quite a few new British-built buses too.
If the experience of the introduction into North London of the Overground, is anything to go by, where people have told me it has allowed them to get to new or better jobs, this new transport infrastructure can only be a good thing.
But if I go to places outside of London, it all seems much better. Surprisingly, there are quite a few bright, new shopping centres.
But then some politicians don’t want to be positive!
The Overground Wins The Passengers’ Votes
I like the London Overground and believe that it has helped to improve the part of London where I live. I’ve heard stories of people getting their first job because it enables them to get reliably to a job out of the area they live.
But don’t just believe me, read this report. Here’s an extract.
The London Overground has trounced the competition in a survey of passenger satisfaction.
Overall, users had an 89 per cent satisfaction rate with the service, a survey conducted by independent rail watchdog Passenger Focus showed.
This compares with 82 per cent for all operators in London and the south east and 83 per cent across the national network.
Let’s hope the Overground works its magic on Tottenham, Walthamstow and Enfield, as it expands next year.
Reflected In The New Pudding Mill Lane Station
I took these pictures today of passing trains reflected in the new Pudding Mill Lane station.
It’s only a few months off being finished.
I had to laugh as a London guide was telling his charges it is the new Crossrail station.
Riding The Drain For The First Time
Surprisingly, I’d never ridden on the Waterloo and City Line (a.k.a. The Drain) until today.
Normally, it’s closed on a Sunday, but to help out the Northern line, TfL were running it today.
I must be the first Londoner, who first rode the Drain in his sixties on a Sunday.
When I used it today, I just walked up the travelator to the surface, up a few steps and along Princes Street and I was at the stop for the 141 bus to take me home.
I do hope that the Drain is going to be run to a similar schedule to the rest of the Underground, as getting to and from Waterloo isn’t the easiest of journeys from Dalston.
I’ll probably use the line again in the future!
Changing Trains At Liverpool
To get from Birmingham to Preston, I took a London Midland train to Liverpool, from where I got a local service to Lancashire’s County Town.
The first train was excellent, as one of the pictures shows. It cost me £24.10 in First, but I had a big table to myself. I’ve used the company before when travelling between Liverpool and Birmingham and I prefer them to Virgin for that route.
Liverpool is a good interchange, as the station is close to Liverpool’s magnificent Civic Buildings. You can also walk down to the Mersey and then get a train back from St. James’s Street. I know that I know Liverpool well, but it must be the only city in England, where the iconic sites can be reached by walking downhill. But then it seems that few city centre stations are close to the shops and attractions. Some like Leeds and Nottingham mean an uphill walk.
On this trip, I’d picked up some sandwiches in Birmingham New Street Station, so all I did was visit the Walker Art Gallery or the National Gallery of the North, as it is sometimes called. We need more attractions like this, close to major interchange railway stations.
The poor part of the trip, was the train from Liverpool to Preston. it was one of Northern Rail’s Class 156, which after the two other trains of the day, was a real drop in standards.
Hauled By A Diesel Locomotive To Birmingham
Since yesterday, I’ve tried to think when was the last time I was hauled around the country by a diesel Locomotive. You may get the occasional diesel multiple unit, but rakes of carriages hauled by a diesel locomotive are pretty rare, and even more so in Europe.
Except for a trip on a sleeper, it must be in the 1980s, when I was last hauled by a diesel locomotive, probably between Ipswich and London.
So yesterday on my trip North to Birmingham, I decided to go from Marylebone for a change.
It was definititely a smoother and more comfortable ride in a Mark 3 Coach hauled by a clean Class 67. Compare the engine, with the blood spattered Class 90, I got for the trip to Ipswich on Saturday.
It was also nice to see Mark 3 Coaches laid out in Standard Class how they had been designed, with a table and a window for all passengers.
If all Standard Class coaches were like this, would anybody pay the extra for First Class?
And when will we be seeing comfortable Mark 3 coaches with sliding doors on London to Norwich?
I wonder how many people, who travel between London and Birmingham on Chiltern Railways, realise that they’re sitting in a coach that dates from the 1970s or 1980s?
What this line now needs is electrification and some appropriate electric locomotives to haul the trains between the two cities and probably on to a few places beyond Birminhgham. If for no other reason, we’ll need extra capacity, if and whilst Euston is rebuilt for HS2.
Next time, I go to Birmingham, I’ll use Chiltern from Marylebone. It is slower at one hour and forty-four minutes, as against one hour twenty-six on Virgin, but it avoids Euston, the trains are more comfortable, wi-fi is free and outside of the peak, I can lay my paper out to read it properly.
Is Beeching To Blame?
I remember the railways in the 1950s and 1960s well. Some will look upon that period as a golden age. But in truth trains and stations were terrible, with some of the diesel multiple units, like these Class 105, seemingly designed to remove the fillings from your teeth. Living in London, you used the Underground, where you could, rather than put up with the dirty local trains and stations. This was all before the Beeching reports, and it showed how bad our railways were. Very few people, who didn’t have to for commuting or work, used the trains and everybody preferred their new-found freedom given by a car.
Something had to be done, especially to cut costs and improve standard. The cuts are outlined here in Wikipedia.
When I was travelling up and down to Liverpool University in the 1960s, the trains were starting to get better, as electrification of the line was added. But still, it wasn’t anywhere near as clean, comfortable and reliable as it is now!
Generally, I believe Beeching was right to recommend closing many of the lines he proposed. They weren’t being used and the country couldn’t afford to fund a white elephant.
But it was the way that politicians and management did the downsizing of the railways, that is to blame for some of our railway problems today.
The way that line closures was done in a sometimes unthinking way, is illustrated by the problems of trying to restablish a rail route from Oxford to Cambridge. The original route was called the Varsity Line, and Wikipedia says this about its closure.
Services were withdrawn from the Oxford – Bletchley and Bedford – Cambridge sections at the end of 1967, even though the line had not been listed for closure as part of the Beeching Axe in 1963.
Although parts could still be reinstated, some parts are blocked by housing and other developments, and the Cambridge University Radio Telescope. The status of the line is described here.
So did an overzealous accountant or politician see the short term gain and lost sight of the future. As Beeching felt the line should stay, they must have thought, they had very good reasons to effectively close it for ever.
But now the government has stated that an East-West Rail Link should be built and they have funded the first part from Oxford to Bedford to open in 2017. The proposals for the link from Bedford to Cambridge are detailed here. Whatever happens, it looks like finding an acceptable route will be difficult.
In some places in the UK, rail closures were done, so that they could be reinstated. Scotland has recently recreated some of these lines and is currently rebuilding some of the Waverley Route.
Did the Scots have the vision, did managers and politicians not have a destroy policy or was it just luck?
London had a different policy. Both the Overground and the Docklands Light Railway were created out of the remains of old forgotten train lines. But then London was lucky, in that roads that could have used the space, were off the agenda and no-one had any decent vision on how to reuse the lines. So they were saved for their renaissance!
Hackney On The Rise
BBC Radio 5 asks this morning about views on the economy. I sent them this text.
Three years ago, I retired to Dalston after a stroke stopped me driving. Every month the area gets better and a lot is down to the London Overground, which takes people to jobs, shopping and leisure activities. It shows how investment in transport can improve the lot for us all! Next year Tottenham gets the overground. We live in interesting times.
So has the Overground really improved things?
I first rode the Overground towards the Olympic Park in July 2010, before I moved here in December of that year. Since that first short run, the system has expanded. but gone are the dingy stationsa, dirty trains and lack of staff of the pre-Overground era. The Class 378 trains, started as three cars, but as they couldn’t handle the demand, they were lengthened to four cars and now they’re going to five. Have we ever built a railway, for which much-need extra capacity can be provided so easily?
But the capacity is needed, as more and more people use the line contributing to the affluence and well-being of the areas it serves, like Hackney.
You could call the Overground a rebranding exercise, but that would be unfair. Give a railway line, better clean stations, reliable frequent trains, visible staff and a simple ticketing system and the passengers will arrive. Visitors will also come and bring prosperity to an area.
London will use the Overground to run trains on the Lea Valley Lines to Tottenham, Enfield, Cheshunt and Chingford. North East London will surely be on the up.
One of the great things about the way the Overground is implemented, as effectively a rebuilt, resignalled and fully-staffed train line first with a deep clear of trains and stations and Oyster ticketing, means that the concept can be brought in, in affordable stages.
I suspect that the Lea Valley lines have a good enough line and signalling for a few years, so it’ll be the grotty and unstaffed stations, and the ticketing, that get the most attention at first. As new Cl;ass 378 trains are delivered, they can of course be run in combination with the ageing Class 315 trains on the lines at present, as their bigger brother, the Class 379 does already. Dripping new trains in surely gives passengers hope that something is happening to improve their dismal line.
With a grand project like Crossrail, you only see the improvement, when the line opens. With the Overground, the upgrade is continuous and now the London boroughs seem to be getting involved in the development of the stations, many of which are on prime sites.
I suspect that the way the Overground has been implemented could be applied to various train lines around the country. The Cambridge to Ipswich line, which I know well could benefit, especially if the main line was electrified for freight and the various councils got involved, to facilitate the development of the stations. Bury St. Edmunds station, is a classic, where a good architect could create a mixed housing and commercial development that did justice to the town.
I believe that if you get the railway right, then the investment and development around stations will follow.
Birdstrike On An Electric Locomotive
It would appear that whatever bird this Class 90 hit, didn’t have much of a chance.
Birdstrike On A Class 90
But then none of us would, if hit by 84.5 tonnes of electric locomotive.
The Anonymous Widower 